As the new year approaches, we’re sharing our favorite stories we published in 2024.
We believe a more just and joyful world is not only possible but it’s constantly being realized in communities all across the globe. That vital work of regular people, often in the face of incredible hardship, continually inspires us.
Here’s a glimpse in 10 stories:
Chief Merong Photo Credit: Allen Myers
This story by Allen Myers shares insights from his 2022 trip to Brumadinho, Brazil, where he witnessed the enduring scars left by a 2019 dam collapse and the fight for justice that followed.
Photo credit: UNESCO
This story by Arvind Dilawar focuses on the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate’s efforts to supply Palestinian journalists with safety gear amid Israel’s genocide in Palestine.
Co-op 1 holds its bi-weekly meeting. Photo credit: Bobby Jones
Urban Recipe is an Atlanta-based food co-op dedicated to “food with dignity.” Shareable is partnering with Urban Recipe for our Food Assistance Co-op pilot project!
Vancouver, British Columbia. Dietmar Rabich, Vancouver (BC, Canada), Davie Street, Hochhaus — 2022 — 1945, cropped, CC BY-SA 4.0
In the final piece written by the co-creator of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) model, John McKnight tells the stories of thirteen communities that replaced the institutional and recovered associational functions by assuming authority for much of their well-being.
The Solidarity Economy exists all around us, from worker co-ops to community land trusts. This explainer dives into what exactly the Solidarity Economy is, examples in the US and internationally, and much more.
Graphic illustration by Anke Dregnat.
This episode explores how marginalized communities in coastal Nigeria and the American South draw upon historical practices of marronage to create autonomous spaces and combat environmental degradation within cities.
Rafa Kidvai from Repro Legal Defense Fund joined us to discuss interconnected struggles, the challenges of surveillance, and the power of community in the fight for reproductive justice.
Learn more about our comprehensive Library of Things Toolkit, designed to help people like you plan, start, and grow Libraries of Things in your community.
Photo collage by Paige Kelly. Images via Canva premium.
Shareable is in the process of updating 50 of our 300+ how-to guides. We updated one of our most popular guides, which explains legal (and illegal) ways not to pay federal taxes. This guide is all too relevant to the United States’ annual military budget, which exceeds $916 billion.
“The journey of rural electrification is a testament to community resilience and innovation. With the inception of Rural Electric Cooperatives (RECs) in the early 20th century, spurred by the 1936 Rural Electrification Act, rural America, quite literally, lit up.” This article features the animated short film “Power to the People: The Story of Rural Electric Cooperatives.”
While storytelling is at the root of everything we do, our work at Shareable only starts with articles like these. In 2024, we also:
That’s a LOT of content and resources to help you imagine and build cooperative sharing projects in your local community!
And there’s even more planned for 2025. We’ve got big plans to provide resources to launch new mutual aid projects, scale Libraries of Things across universities and affordable housing developments, start new food assistance co-ops, train rural electric co-op member-owners, and so much more.
But we need your support to make it happen.
If you’re able, please make a contribution so we can continue building on this momentum and co-create a world where sharing is daily practice and communities thrive.
The post Best of Shareable 2024 | Reader’s Digest appeared first on Shareable.
We believe a more just and joyful world is not only possible but it’s constantly being realized in communities all across the globe. That vital work of regular people, often in the face of incredible hardship, continually inspires us.
Here’s a glimpse in 10 stories:
1. Modern-day colonialism and the tragic fate of an indigenous water and land protector
Chief Merong Photo Credit: Allen Myers
This story by Allen Myers shares insights from his 2022 trip to Brumadinho, Brazil, where he witnessed the enduring scars left by a 2019 dam collapse and the fight for justice that followed.
2. Life-Saving lending library: Union supplies Palestinian journalists with safety gear amid ongoing Israeli genocide
Photo credit: UNESCO
This story by Arvind Dilawar focuses on the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate’s efforts to supply Palestinian journalists with safety gear amid Israel’s genocide in Palestine.
3. The transformative power of Urban Recipe’s Atlanta food co-op model
Co-op 1 holds its bi-weekly meeting. Photo credit: Bobby Jones
Urban Recipe is an Atlanta-based food co-op dedicated to “food with dignity.” Shareable is partnering with Urban Recipe for our Food Assistance Co-op pilot project!
4. From reform to what works: Moving from the limits of institutions to a culture powered by neighbors
Vancouver, British Columbia. Dietmar Rabich, Vancouver (BC, Canada), Davie Street, Hochhaus — 2022 — 1945, cropped, CC BY-SA 4.0
In the final piece written by the co-creator of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) model, John McKnight tells the stories of thirteen communities that replaced the institutional and recovered associational functions by assuming authority for much of their well-being.
5. A Shareable Explainer: What is the Solidarity Economy?
The Solidarity Economy exists all around us, from worker co-ops to community land trusts. This explainer dives into what exactly the Solidarity Economy is, examples in the US and internationally, and much more.
6. Cities@Tufts Podcast: Urban Environmental Marronage – Connecting Black Ecologies with Charisma Acey
Graphic illustration by Anke Dregnat.
This episode explores how marginalized communities in coastal Nigeria and the American South draw upon historical practices of marronage to create autonomous spaces and combat environmental degradation within cities.
7. The Response Podcast: Surveillance and reproductive justice with Rafa Kidvai
Rafa Kidvai from Repro Legal Defense Fund joined us to discuss interconnected struggles, the challenges of surveillance, and the power of community in the fight for reproductive justice.
8. New toolkit from Shareable will help you start (and grow) a Library of Things in YOUR community
Learn more about our comprehensive Library of Things Toolkit, designed to help people like you plan, start, and grow Libraries of Things in your community.
9. How to not pay taxes
Photo collage by Paige Kelly. Images via Canva premium.
Shareable is in the process of updating 50 of our 300+ how-to guides. We updated one of our most popular guides, which explains legal (and illegal) ways not to pay federal taxes. This guide is all too relevant to the United States’ annual military budget, which exceeds $916 billion.
10. “Power to the People: The Story of Rural Electric Cooperatives”
“The journey of rural electrification is a testament to community resilience and innovation. With the inception of Rural Electric Cooperatives (RECs) in the early 20th century, spurred by the 1936 Rural Electrification Act, rural America, quite literally, lit up.” This article features the animated short film “Power to the People: The Story of Rural Electric Cooperatives.”
While storytelling is at the root of everything we do, our work at Shareable only starts with articles like these. In 2024, we also:
- Directly supported nine Library of Things fellows; researched and released the State of Libraries of Things 2024 report; hosted a 12-week Library of Things Co-Lab; helped incubate the new Tool Library Alliance in the US; and released the comprehensive Library of Things Toolkit.
- Continued our partnership with Rural Power Coalition to support a just energy transition to the largest co-op sector in the US. In partnership with The Story of Stuff Project, we released explainer videos on the history of rural electric cooperatives, virtual power plants, and agrivoltaics.
- Supported the development of community backup power systems with our Emergency Battery Toolkit, launched a Food Assistance Co-op pilot project in partnership with Urban Recipe, and co-hosted the Social Co-op Academy with the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center.
- Updated and republished 24 how-to guides covering topics from worker co-ops to participatory budgeting to mutual aid to making music with friends and more!
- Co-hosted 13 public Cities@Tufts lectures in partnership with the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University (including Reimagining Urban Planning with Jose Richard Aviles, How to fight a mega-jail with Maya Singhal, and Here There Be Dragons with Jess Myers), released five episodes of The Response (including indigenous disaster response, Facing the heat: Disaster management in the age of climate crisis with Samantha Montano, and journalists in Palestine), and worked with spoken word artists in Oregon to perform “Voices of The Response” (our live version of The Response).
That’s a LOT of content and resources to help you imagine and build cooperative sharing projects in your local community!
And there’s even more planned for 2025. We’ve got big plans to provide resources to launch new mutual aid projects, scale Libraries of Things across universities and affordable housing developments, start new food assistance co-ops, train rural electric co-op member-owners, and so much more.
But we need your support to make it happen.
If you’re able, please make a contribution so we can continue building on this momentum and co-create a world where sharing is daily practice and communities thrive.
The post Best of Shareable 2024 | Reader’s Digest appeared first on Shareable.